#Journalism#Media#News#TheIntercept: "At a time when Israel’s war in Gaza had spread to the rest of the region, drawing in the Iranian superpower, my sources in the U.S. government were leaking more than ever to alert the public to looming catastrophe. I could not in good conscience remain at an outlet that can’t publish these disclosures, nor continue to live off of donor money that is not going toward its stated purpose, journalism, let alone “fearless” journalism that the Intercept was founded around.
The extent of the dysfunction at The Intercept is not publicly known in part because, for all management’s problems, they are very good at one thing: structuring hush money payments. Multiple outgoing Intercept staffers have been offered severance packages in exchange for signing non-disclosure agreements. Following Bill’s firing, I was also offered a “retention” agreement. I did not dignify the offer with a response. I don’t begrudge my colleagues taking the money — people need to pay rent — but I can no longer stay.
My decision to resign from The Intercept is something of a leap of faith. Unlike many reporters I’ve run into, I don’t get financial help from mommy and daddy, so my runway is limited. But what I do have is an abiding faith in the generosity of ordinary people."
Israel and #Israel Alone Kicked Off This Escalation — In a Bid to Drag U.S. Into War With Iran - #Netanyahu ’s recklessness was fostered by blind U.S. support, but Israel is the one pushing its war with #Iran out of the shadows.
by #MurtazaHussain
#US / Schumer: 'Israel Cannot Survive if It Becomes a Pariah'
[…] Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the highest ranking Jewish elected official in U.S. history and a pro-Israel stalwart, slammed Netanyahu as having 'bowed to the demands of extremists' and warning the Israeli government that it is 'testing U.S. standards for assistance'
This unprecedented call comes amid growing pressure within the Democratic caucus to condition U.S. military assistance to Israel, with eight senators urging #Biden to halt arms sales if Israel fails to improve aid provision to Gaza.
Schumer's speech has been praised by some as historic and gutsy, while the Republican Jewish Coalition accused him of undermining Israel and meddling in its domestic politics.
[cont'd] The Pro-Israel Right Wants to Eat Its Cake Too
@MickG59 title says it all, I think [apropos your comment]
[...] American foreign policy is today effectively handcuffed by the lobbying efforts of powerful special interest groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. These organizations are hellbent on ensuring that the U.S. provide Israel unstinting military, economic, and diplomatic support, even as its government rebuffs repeated U.S. requests to allow the creation of a Palestinian state in accordance with international law.
#NYT / Probe Over Unaired Podcast Episode Questioning Hamas Reporting
The New York Times is conducting an internal leak investigation to find out how details were leaked about an unaired episode of The Daily podcast. The episode was about a controversial Times investigation claiming #Hamas used sexual violence as a weapon in its October 2024 attack on Israel.
After objections were raised internally about the strength of the original reporting, a new script was drafted with major caveats.
The probe comes amid wider disputes over coverage of the Israel-Hamas war by the newspaper.
#MediaBias / Jewish Insider wants WAPO's coverage of the Middle East to be more like that of NYT and WSJ ... 🤔
Jewish Insider claims the Washington Post is "under fire" for "repeated anti-Israel bias, systemic sloppiness in Middle East coverage."
The "fire" seems to be repeated claims by sources such as Jewish Insider editors themselves, Time of Israel and organizations such as #ADL, #CAMERA and few others.
No need to remind anyone who or what #ADL is and how it operates https://droptheadl.org/, but CAMERA (so called "Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America") is possibly even worse.
"To its supporters, CAMERA is figuratively - and perhaps literally - doing God's work, battling insidious anti-Israeli bias in the media. But its detractors see CAMERA as a myopic and vindictive special interest group trying to muscle its views into media coverage. ... To many in the media CAMERA is ... an advocacy group trying to impose its pro-Israeli views on mainstream journalism." --- The Boston Globe, Mark Jurkowitz observed https://web.archive.org/web/20090213190540/http://www.hnn.us/comments/8390.html
The most relevant part in the WAPO's editor's note, later added to the article, states:
"The article incorrectly said that all Palestinian mothers who received authorization to leave Gaza for humanitarian reasons had to return to Gaza to reapply after their permits expired. In fact, it was not always necessary for mothers to return to Gaza."
They also mention addition of comments from Israeli officials.
"Some" is not none, but WAPO correcting itself should be praised. Jewish Insider and the other critics mentioned though want to discredit yet another publication documenting Israel's #WarCrimes in Gaza.
Jewish Insider seem to claim that WAPO's coverage of Israel must be biased, because its tone and findings seem to be very different from that of NYT and WSJ. But, is that a bad thing?
Considering the NYT exploitative coverage of the unconfirmed systematic rape by Hamas militants (in which its reporter misled one of the victims' family) and the hit job on #UNRWA the #IDF ran in the WWSJ, the Washington Post has really nothing to apologize for.
[cont'd] #MediaBias / The Story Behind the New York Times October 7 Exposé
[...] The fear among #NYT staffers who have been critical of the paper’s #Gaza coverage is that Schwartz will become a scapegoat for what is a much deeper failure. She may harbor animosity toward Palestinians, lack the experience with investigative journalism, and feel conflicting pressures between being a supporter of Israel’s war effort and a Times reporter, but Schwartz did not commission herself and her nephew to report one of the most consequential stories of the war. Senior leadership at the New York Times did.
So who is Anat Schwartz?
She's an Israeli filmmaker with no prior journalism experience. She was assigned to work on a controversial New York Times investigation into alleged #Hamas sexual violence, despite lacking objectivity. She was paired with veteran Times reporter Jeffrey Gettleman, though she and Sella did most of the reporting.
She pushed for the Times story alleging systematic Hamas sexual violence to be published quickly to aid Israeli propaganda, despite lack of evidence. Furthermore, she relied heavily on testimony from dubious sources, like Israeli officials and #Zaka workers, who known for spreading false information. Even worse, she dismissed her own doubts and lack of forensic evidence to remain convinced of the sexual violence claims.
Schwartz had liked tweets saying Israel should "turn Gaza into a slaughterhouse" and that Palestinians were "human animals".
#Germany / Media Giant Axel Springer Makes money on Israel’s Illegal Settlement
[...] Defending Israel against criticisms of human rights violations, however, is one thing. Making money off those violations is another. Yet that’s exactly what Springer appears to be doing. Springer’s Israeli classified ads website Yad2 — the largest Craigslist-like classifieds site in the country — publishes real estate listings across Israel, including rental apartments and sales in Israeli settlements that are considered
[…] In December, Yad2 took out its own advertisement in an Israeli business paper to promote home sales on its site. “From the River to the Sea,” the ad, which appeared in The Marker, says in English, depicting a map of Israel and Palestine with pins dropped all over. The map has no “Green Line” or other markings separating Israel’s internationally recognized borders and occupied Palestinian territory. Below the co-opted protest slogan, the ad continues in Hebrew: “Yad2 helps you look forward and build a future in your next home in Israel.”
[…] The Intercept found thousands of apartments for sale and for rent in illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank. Of those, more than 1,000 were paid ads from brokerage houses — meaning Yad2, and therefore Axel Springer, made money on them. #TheIntercepthttps://theintercept.com/2024/02/05/axel-springer-israel-settlement-profit/
Industrial Killing of Civilians in Gaza Won’t Defeat the Armed Insurgency.
Biden made his choice — and has continued to double down on it in the face of every fresh horror that has unfolded in Gaza. (...) Biden should never be permitted to escape the cold fact that he served as the arms dealer and most consequential public propagandist for a war of choice against an overwhelmingly defenseless civilian population.
This is some seriously underrated tea on #Chevron, the oil company acting like Regina George (actually though).
By Eamon Levesque | Jul 31, 2023
From the article:
#Donziger ’s three-decade legal battle with #Chevron is a pain to summarize. Key to understand is that he represented 30,000 #Ecuadorian#indigenous residents of the #Amazon in a lawsuit against oil giant Chevron.
#Chevron responded by suing #Donziger in the U.S. for $60 billion — for scale, that’s roughly one Koch brother. #TheIntercept and others have noted that Chevron’s case against Steven hinged on a witness that Chevron had paid “hundreds of thousands” of dollars, and a judge with “a soft spot” for the #OilCompany. Though damages were dropped, Donziger was found guilty, disbarred, imprisoned, placed on house arrest, and remains unable to leave the country.
In two stories about law enforcement infiltration during the George Floyd uprising, @theintercept has referenced our work without attribution.
In their story about Mickey Windecker, we are simply referred to as "an antifascist activist group in Colorado Springs," despite playing a significant role in this story by blowing Mickey's cover and being on the receiving end of his copjacketing.
In the recent story about CSPD undercover April Rogers, we broke the news about her trying to entrap leftists with illegal firearms sales a year ago, but that is never mentioned.